The Good Old Days

THE GOOD OLD DAYS

Of Country District Schools Are Passed

Editor Argus: In last week's issue of one of your contemporaries I noticed the following: "For efficiency of purpose and for unity in excellence, the rural schools of this county have never been excelled." As for efficiency of purpose it should be our aim to make our district schools as complete in themselves as possible as they are the beginning and end of many a boy and girl school careers, hence they should be so governed and disciplined as to afford the pupil a practical foundation for the knowledge to be acquired to assist him through life. There are many embarrassments that confront a teacher in a district school that have always been and always will be, and the most deplorable of these is irregular attendance in which I cannot see that our present system has made any improvement, for the good old days must not be ignored when scholars looked anxiously forward for that so-called "last day" when prizes were to be given to the ones who left off head the most times in their respective spelling classes or who were not absent or tardy and who felt fully equipped to accompany their teacher to a neighboring district spelling school only to have their joy turned to sorrow by having their underpinning knocked out by one of those formidable "cach words." Those were the days when you met scholars on their way to or from school with their spelling books under their arms, or in passing by a school house you would hear a whole class reading in concert, or hear the A, B, C, fellows ringing out the old multiplication table, and if you asked one of them if you took two steps forward and three back he could tell you right where you were at and when I read in the papers of some fellow advocating reform in spelling then I began to wonder if when his theory is put into practice where we will be at. The next condition to be confronted is in districts that are densely settled with Germans some of whom can speak but little English and others who have to attend German school part of the year. It seems to me that our present so-called system of grading district schools does an injustice to them as they have much more to contend with. And then there are the boys and girls, who used to do chores for their board winters and go to school or some young German boy 18 or 20 who merely wants to learn to read and write the English language and will ask you why the words to, their, and several other words are spelled in two or more different ways. Where are they now? You do not see them standing around the school yard during the noon hour or meet there in the morning on their way to school. Can it be that our district schools are outgrowing their usefulness? If so we want a system that will create more enthusiasm between teacher and pupil than between teacher and institutes. Then we will see without leaving home or consulting our county papers the condition of our schools.

A PARENT